Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sound of the bell rang out through the halls of Casper High, followed shortly after by the rumble of hundreds of feet as the entire school rushed to escape the building now that the day was over. Danny was one of them, shuffling along with the flow of bodies as he made his way over to his locker, ducking out of the stream of students just as he reached it. He spun his combination, gave the locker door a little jolt to unstick it, and swung it open, shoving his books away for the weekend. As he emptied out his backpack of the supplies he didn’t need, he glanced down at his watch, absently noting the time. It was 3:23 PM. Good, still on track.

Suddenly, he heard a body impact lightly against the locker next to his. Jumping slightly in surprise, Danny closed his locker door to reveal Sam and Tucker had arrived, both leaning against the wall of lockers and watching him.

“Hey Danny,” Tucker greeted. “What did you think of that last question on the worksheet?”

“I’m trying not to think about it,” Danny joked, zipping up his bag.

“Same. Ah well, it was only worth, what, two percent of our grade?”

“Five,” Sam corrected, checking her nails. “But who’s tracking that? Anyways. Danny.”

She looked up, and her eyes bored into him. Danny paled, knowing exactly what she was about to ask, and wishing desperately that she wouldn’t.

Sure enough, though, she sighed, and demanded, “Tell us you’re finally actually free tonight, for once.”

She and Tucker stared at him expectantly, and Danny shrank back against his locker.

“I, uh…well…”

“Oh, come on, Danny!” Sam snapped when Danny didn’t immediately agree. “You never hang out with us anymore! I don’t remember the last time we went to Tucker’s place, or to the mall.”

“I know, I know,” Danny groaned. “I’m sorry. It’s just…you know how my parents are. Ever since all these ghosts started showing up, they’ve gotten really overprotective and paranoid. They don’t want me out after dark, so I’ve got a really strict curfew.”

Sam looked unconvinced. “You expect us to believe that?” she scoffed. “If that’s true, then why do I keep running into Jazz well after dark at the library and the book store?”

Danny flushed, not expecting to be caught out that quickly. But he’d gotten very good at hiding his true thoughts behind a mask, and so he simply gave a show of looking annoyed. “It’s because she’s older,” he told them, crossing his arms in frustration for good measure. “They say she’s responsible enough to take care of herself. They also arm her to the teeth with anti-ghost gear in case she ever runs into one of them, but they don’t trust me with their stuff yet.”

“It’s not even like it’s that much worse after dark,” Sam argued, putting her hands on her hips. “There’s just as many ghosts during the daytime. Besides, night is when that Phantom ghost shows up, and he’s usually one of the good ones.”

“Oh yeah!” Tucker perked up. “He saved my dad from getting squished by a telephone pole last week! That guy seems pretty chill.”

“Exactly, Tucker, thank you,” Sam said with an approving nod. “See? Night time might be even safer, because then at least there’s a good ghost watching out for people.”

“My parents say there’s no such thing as a good ghost,” Danny told them with a wince. “And that Phantom is likely just trying to lull people into a false sense of security.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Sam asked, giving Danny a flat look.

“Nope,” he said with a shrug. “And they’re the experts, so I try to listen to them.”

Sam continued to stare him down disbelievingly, but Danny didn’t let his expression shift for a moment, lest she sense weakness. Still, he couldn’t help but let his eyes flick towards the clock up on the wall. Crud. Already 3:30? He couldn’t afford to let this drag on much longer.

Sam must have noticed his glance, because her frown deepened. “Somewhere to be, Danny?”

“I told you, I have a curfew.”

“It’s not even four o’clock.”

Danny didn’t really have a comeback for that one, so he just kept his mouth shut.

Eventually Tucker, who had been watching Danny and Sam’s argument with a worried frown, let out a soft sigh. “Let’s just go, Sam. He’s clearly not interested in hanging out with us today. Or ever.”

Sam still gave Danny a dark glare for a few more seconds before she too sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Yeah, you’re right Tuck. Let’s just forget it.”

They started to walk away. Realizing that he was about to potentially screw up his relationship with his two best friends, Danny’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Wait!” he shouted, making them both pause and turn back to face him. Their expressions were guarded, but at least they hadn’t ignored him. “Wait. I can’t hang out tonight, but what about tomorrow? We could go to the mall? I haven’t had a chance to catch the new Kung Fu Croc movie yet, if you guys still want to go see it.”

Sam and Tucker shared a look, smiles slowly growing on their faces.

“Yeah? You’d be down for that?” Tucker asked.

“I haven’t seen the second one yet,” Sam admitted, “but I might have a chance tonight. Besides, I hear this one’s pretty stand alone.”

“Cool. So we’ll meet up at the mall tomorrow for, say, ten?” Danny suggested, feeling a little bit lighter now. His friends were still willing to talk to him! Yes!

“Sure!” Tucker agreed cheerfully. “Good idea getting there early, I’m sure the place will be packed by lunch.”

“Yeah, great idea, Danny. We’ll see you there,” Sam said, and then she nudged Tucker with her shoulder. “Hey, wanna go check out that new pet store with me? I hear they got in some new snakes.”

Tucker went a little green in the face, but he hesitantly held up two thumbs up, giving Sam a shaky grin.“Great. Yeah. Sure, love that.”

“Awesome, come on!” she cheered, grabbing his wrist. “See ya tomorrow, Danny!”

“See ya!” Danny waved goodbye, watching them head down the hall with a relieved smile. He knew the two of them had been getting sick of him brushing them off all the time, but he was glad they were still willing to give him a chance to make it up to them. He was also really kind of looking forward to the mall trip tomorrow. It had been too long since he’d actually gone out and just had fun.

Still smiling, he glanced down at his watch, and then saw the time. Immediately his happy smile dropped as his blood ran cold.

“Holy cow, I’m late!” he cursed, whirling and charging down the hall, shoving past the last of the stragglers trying to leave. He jumped down the front steps, ignoring the shouts of surprise and anger from the A-listers he pushed out of his way, just tossing a quick apology over his shoulder. He’d probably pay for that come Monday, but right now he had bigger problems than Dash’s temper tantrums.

His feet pounded on the pavement as he rushed home, the air in his lungs burning like ice, the stitch in his side feeling like a knife slowly working its way into his skin. But he didn’t have time to pause and catch his breath. His watch was reading 3:56, and he was still at least five minutes from home.

The red light of the clock on the stove blinked a cheerful 4:01 PM at him as he burst through the front door, heaving for breath like a racehorse that had just run the Kentucky Derby.

“I’m…home!” he panted out, carelessly kicking off his shoes.

As expected, only silence greeted him. Danny couldn’t remember the last time his parents were home after school. Sure enough, they’d left a sticky note on the fridge telling him and Jazz that they’d be out late and that there was food in the fridge. Of course, most of the food was expired or so contaminated with ectoplasm that it needed to be hunted down before it could be consumed, but technically they weren’t wrong. Danny tried to be understanding about their frequent absences; ever since ghosts started appearing in Amity Park, most of the time they were the city’s only line of defense. They spent most of their time either hunting down rampaging spooks, or helping the city ghost-proof itself as much as possible with their various inventions. It was a lot of work, and Danny knew that.

Didn’t make coming home to an empty house every day any more fun.

Still, their absence also really worked out in his favour these days, too. Couldn’t notice anything weird was going on with your kid if you were never around him, right?

Shaking away his bitter thoughts, Danny dug a granola bar out of the cupboard, unwrapping it and shoving it into his mouth as he rushed up the stairs. The door of his bedroom slammed shut behind him just as the clock on his nightstand changed to 4:06. Chewing furiously, Danny dropped his backpack to the floor by his desk, kicked a few books and piles of dirty clothes aside to clear some space, and then stood in the middle of his room to wait.

Sure enough, as soon as the clock hit 4:07 PM, the change began. Danny screwed his eyes shut as green sparks started to dance and arc along his skin, starting from his left hand, growing bigger and brighter, until they surged together. A massive bolt of electricity ripped through him, lighting him up from the inside out, and Danny choked back a scream as his world exploded.

Seconds later, where Danny Fenton had once stood now hovered Danny Phantom, still trembling with the aftershocks of his transformation.

He floated for a moment, letting the last few sparks of electricity trail along his newly formed hazmat suit and gloves, before he slowly relaxed with a sigh, staring down at his ghostly form.

“Here we go again,” he muttered to himself.

With the air of long practice, Phantom made his way over to his bed, digging around underneath until he emerged with an old beat up mannequin with black hair, dressed in space-themed pajamas. He dropped it into his bed, tucking it under the covers just so, so that if anyone bothered to poke their heads into his room, it would look like he was sleeping.

“Not that mom or dad will probably bother to check,” Danny continued to mutter. He made a couple of adjustments to the mannequin’s position, stepped back to study the scene, and then nodded in satisfaction.

And then, with another sigh, he launched himself up through the ceiling and out of the house. The last thing he wanted was to be in ghost form and hanging around the house of ghost hunters. Sure, his parents were never around, but that didn’t mean the place wasn’t crawling with anti-ghost sensors and tech. Better to clear out, rather than accidentally set something off. Again.

He emerged through the roof of the house, and floated up a few more feet, just to get a better look at his surroundings. The sun was still shining in the sky, though it was starting to sink towards the horizon. People were just making their way home from school and work, the roads beginning to fill up with traffic. The city, his city, was full of life and activity.

Too bad he couldn’t take part in any of it.

He stared out longingly over the houses below, catching sight of Tucker and Sam in the far distance, making their way down the sidewalk and chatting together. He wanted to go join them so badly. But how the heck was he supposed to show himself to them when he was a ghost now? How could he admit to them that he’d screwed up, zapped himself in his parents’ ghost portal, and simultaneously released all of the ghosts that were currently terrorizing the city and turned himself into some half ghost freak? For twelve hours a day, he was a normal human kid, just trying to go about his business, but every day, at the same time he’d died when he’d turned on the portal, he’d switch, and spend the next twelve hours as a ghost. It was exhausting, trying to keep his secret from getting out, but he didn’t know how people would react. Even his best friends, he wasn’t sure he could trust. Would they accept him and his weird quirkiness? Or would they hand him over to his parents for experimentation? He wanted to believe it would be the former, but he couldn’t shake the fear that it would be the latter, so he lied and hid and did whatever he had to in order to keep his secret safe.

Even if it cost him his friendships.

Sighing, Danny prepared to do his usual patrol route around the city when his breath suddenly puffed out of his mouth in a cloud of blue smoke. Drat. His ghost sense was going off already? It was going to be a long night.

Grumbling under his breath, Danny started flying off in the direction he sensed the ghost. Hopefully it was just a swarm of blob ghosts, and he could take it easy tonight.

It was not just blob ghosts.

Danny had ended up dragging himself back to his room just before 4AM, bruised, scratched, and exhausted. He allowed the electricity to once again rip through him, transforming him back into his human self, and barely had the energy to shove his body double back under his bed before he collapsed face-first into his pillows, too tired to even change out of his clothes.

He woke hours later, groggy and disoriented, to the sound of someone moving around in the kitchen downstairs. Frowning in sleepy confusion, Danny dragged himself out of bed and down the stairs to investigate who was actually home for once.

He was even more surprised to find his mom bustling around the kitchen. She was tossing a used frying pan into the sink to soak, humming softly under her breath.

“Mom?” Danny croaked, scratching at his hair.

“Hmm? Oh! Good morning, sleepy head!” his mom said cheerfully when she caught sight of him. “Did you sleep well?”

“Uh…sure?” he said, blinking at her. God, it was too early for so much cheer. His mom’s smile hurt to look at. “What are you doing home?”

“Oh, just restocking,” she told him, turning off the sink and heading towards the front door. Danny’s shoulders slumped in disappointment as he realized she was about to leave again. “Your father and I ran into that Phantom ghost again last night,” she informed him.

He was very aware of that, thanks mom. His ribs were still aching.

“He got away again, unfortunately. And our ectoweapons ran out of juice, so I’m just popping in to recharge and switch out cartridges. Someone called to let us know there was another attack down by the park so your father and I are going to head out there to clean it up. Might be a bit of a crazy night tonight, given it’s daylight savings. Not sure how that’s going to affect the ghosts, but we’ll see. Anyways! Help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge, sweetie, have a good day!”

And then she was out of the house without even looking back at him, the door slamming shut behind her. She’d barely even glanced his way the entire time she’d been in the kitchen with him.

“See ya, mom. Love you,” Danny said quietly to the space where she’d been.

“Oh. You’re here.”

Danny’s head whipped up as he registered that someone else had entered the kitchen. His eyes widened minutely as he caught sight of Jazz glaring at him from the doorway, her arms wrapped around a textbook, and he fought down the urge to flinch. She continued to scowl at him, even as she brushed past him, pausing only long enough to grab a water bottle out of the cupboard before she too left the house without saying a word.

Danny’s body remained tense until after she was gone, and then he finally let himself relax, his head hanging low in both relief and despair. As much as it hurt that his lies were slowly destroying his friendship with Sam and Tucker, having to deliberately sabotage his relationship with his sister had been so much worse. But he couldn’t help it! Jazz lived with him! And she was insanely smart, too smart for her own good sometimes. If anyone was going to figure out his secret, it would have been her. So he’d done what he’d had to do to make sure she paid him just as little attention as their parents did. He’d been mean, he’d been rude, he’d even been deliberately cruel, until she’d given up on seeing through his ruse, given up on wasting any of her time on him.

Until she’d given up on him.

It hurt. God, it hurt. But it was for the best. She couldn’t know the truth. She, more than anyone, knew how dangerous ghosts could be, after all their parents’ lectures. Surely she’d be the first to hand him over if she found out what he’d become.

Still, it really sucked. He missed his big sister.

Glancing at the kitchen clock, Danny caught sight of the time and swore loudly. He’d slept in later than he’d intended, it was already well after ten. Enough wasting his time feeling sorry for himself, he needed to make it to the mall before Sam and Tucker gave up on him too and he officially had no one left in his life that cared about him.

Cursing up a storm, he ran upstairs to get changed.

“Damn, I did not see that ending coming,” Danny murmured as he, Sam, and Tucker emerged from the movie hours later, eyes squinting against the sudden brightness of the outside world compared to the darkness of the theater.

“No kidding,” Tucker agreed, looking just as shell shocked as Danny. “I didn’t even know they were going to make it a two-parter.”

“I’m just glad I managed to watch the second one last night after all,” Sam added, tossing her empty popcorn bag into the garbage. “Like, I know this one basically ignored the second movie, but I caught a couple of references that would have flown over my head otherwise.”

“Like the spaceship?”

“Exactly!”

They made their way past the movie theater’s arcade section and back out into the mall, wandering absently past the stores, occasionally glancing in through the windows if something caught their eyes. Sam dragged Danny and Tucker into the local goth store at one point so she could buy some new earrings, and then Tucker returned the favour by pulling them into the tech store the next hall over. Danny himself was just content to follow his friends around, happy to be spending time with them for once without keeping an eye on the clock.

“What do you guys want to do next?” Tucker asked as he finished cashing out, shoving his new gadgets into his shopping bags. “I don’t really want to go home yet, but I figure we’re pretty much done here, right?”

“It’s a bit too early for dinner,” Sam said thoughtfully, leading them over to a corner so they could talk without getting in the way of the other shoppers. “But you’re right, I’m not really eager to head home yet either. My mom’s going to drag me out of bed early tomorrow for some stupid home and gardens show downtown, even though we’re already going to be losing an hour of sleep thanks to the clocks changing.”

Tucker winced. “Don’t remind me. I hate the spring daylight savings. I’m a growing boy, I need my beauty sleep, damnit!”

“What do you think, Danny?” Sam asked, turning to face him. “You’ve mostly let us pick where to go, anything in particular you’d like to do now?”

“Me?” Danny asked, surprised by the sudden attention. He tried thinking about it, but he honestly couldn’t come up with anything. Just being here at the mall and catching a movie with his friends had been everything he wanted to do today; anything else was just extra.

“Yeah, you,” Sam continued, raising her eyebrow. “You’re not going to turn into a pumpkin just yet, right?”

Her comment reminded him that he’d been deliberately avoiding looking at a clock all day, trying to devote all of his attention to his friends. But now that she’d mentioned it, he couldn’t help but think that it was probably getting pretty late for him. Almost against his will, his arm came up, and he looked down at the watch on his wrist.

Crud. It was already after three, and he still needed to catch a bus back home.

He looked up at Sam and Tucker. Based on the way their expressions were falling, he could tell they already knew what he was going to say.

Still, he said it anyway. “I, uh. I actually need to get going,” he mumbled reluctantly.

Sam stared at him for what felt like a full minute, before she let out a wordless shout of frustration and threw her hands up in the air.

“Seriously, Danny, seriously?!” she cried. “First you show up late, now you’re leaving early? What the heck, do you just not want to hang out with us anymore? Is that why you suggested seeing a movie, so you wouldn’t have to actually talk to us? If that’s what’s going on, just tell us already, because we’re getting sick of you jerking us around!”

“I’m sorry!” he tried to defend himself. “I just need to get home because my parents - ”

“Your parents are busy dealing with an ectopus invasion at city hall,” Sam snapped, cutting him off. “I overheard someone talking about it in the food court. Sounds like they’ll be dealing with it all day, which means they won’t notice if you break your insane curfew just this once.”

“Yeah, come on Danny,” Tucker added, though much more quietly than Sam. His expression was pinched and nervous, his eyes flicking between his friends. “Not like we want to be a bad influence or anything, but your parents are way too strict. You need a chance to just live a little, be a kid, you know?”

“I…” Danny stared at his friends wordlessly, his mouth hanging open, as he struggled to come up with a good excuse for why he had to leave. The longer he went without saying anything, the darker Sam’s expression grew, Tucker’s shoulders drooping lower and lower as they realized that he was still going to leave them.

“I can’t,” Danny finished lamely, his eyes dropping down to stare at his shoes in shame. “I’m sorry.”

They watched him for a moment, as if giving him the chance to change his mind. But as the seconds stretched without Danny whipping his head up and shouting ‘syke!’ he could feel them growing more closed off. Finally, he saw Sam’s boots shift and start walking away out of his peripheral vision.

“Sam? Sam, wait!” he called after her, reaching out to grab her shoulder.

She immediately knocked his hand away, whirling on him with fire in her eyes.

“No!” she shouted. “No, I’m done! I’m tired of always having to work with your schedule, of always hanging out only when it’s convenient for you! Figure out your priorities, Danny, because as far as I can see, we aren’t one of them.”

With that parting note, she turned back on her heel and stomped off, leaving Danny standing there in the middle of the mall, watching her go.

Danny thought that Sam’s words had hurt, but then he felt Tucker come to stand next to him. He turned towards his oldest friend, his heart already sinking as he took in the conflicted expression on Tucker’s face.

“I’m sorry, Danny, but Sam’s right,” Tucker told him, digging the knife in Danny’s heart a little deeper. “I really miss hanging out with you, but it’s hard when half the time you don’t show up. You even missed Sam’s big poetry thing last weekend, and you know she’s been working on that for like a year.”

“I…I know,” Danny said sadly, fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes.

Tucker shrugged. “Look, I’m sorry, man. We just…we need to know you’re here for us, too, you know?”

“I know. I know, Tucker, I promise. I swear I’m not trying to ditch you guys or something,” Danny said earnestly.

Tucker sighed. “Maybe you’re not trying to,” he allowed. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not doing it. And even I’m getting a bit tired of it.”

The words felt like a blow to Danny’s chest. He dropped his head again, hiding behind his bangs as the tears started to leak out of his eyes.

“See you at school, Danny,” Tucker told him sadly as he too turned to go. “Hopefully.”

And then he was gone, and Danny was left alone.

Worse, he only had a minute to try and gather himself, because when he managed to blink the tears in his eyes away long enough to take a quick peek at his watch, it showed that if he wanted to make it home in time to transform, he needed to leave now. So, angrily scrubbing the tears from his eyes and face with the back of his hand, Danny spun around and raced towards the mall entrance that faced the bus stop.

He could be sad about his ruined friendships later. Or never. Yeah, never sounded good. That was healthy, right? Just push the problems down and never think about it, and you’ll be a-ok.

Sure. That was exactly how it worked.

Huffing in frustration, Danny ran to catch the bus.

Chapter Text

“I’m getting really tired of this, Johnny!” Danny shouted, shooting another ectoblast at the motorcycle racing away from him up ahead. He missed, but his shot forced the bike to swerve so that it avoided Mr. Cooper’s new car, much to Danny’s relief.

“Hey, man, lay off!” Johnny shot back over his shoulder. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to find jewelry that Kitty likes? This one is perfect for her!”

“That’s great! I’m happy to hear you found her the perfect gift, no problems with that!” Danny replied with false cheer. “It’s the not paying for it part that I have an issue with!”

Johnny scoffed and rolled his eyes, before making a sharp turn with his bike. He drove towards the tallest building on the street, driving his motorcycle straight up the wall to gain some altitude. “Shadow! Get this loser off my tail, would ya?”

Johnny’s shadow tore itself away from him and swooped down on Danny who was in hot pursuit. Danny yelped and jerked sideways just as Shadow’s claws tore through the air where his head had been a moment before.

“Yeowch! Sorry, not looking to get a haircut today!” Danny joked as he flew away from his new opponent.

Shadow snarled and gave chase, and soon Danny found himself playing cat and mouse with the disembodied smear of darkness, zooming all through Amity Park’s downtown as Danny frantically tried to get Shadow off of his tail.

They blew past the library at one point, and it took Danny a moment to make out the time on the old analog clock face - 2:59 AM already? Damn. He still had about an hour, but he really needed to wrap this up. He also spotted Johnny’s motorcycle taking off into the sky, so he changed course to intercept, Shadow close behind.

“Pretty sure traffic control didn’t give you clearance to be up this high, Johnny!” Danny shouted up at Johnny’s retreating figure, the gap between them closing rapidly. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that Shadow was also closing in. Thinking quickly, Danny kept his eyes on Johnny while also focusing the rest of his senses on the fast approaching Shadow. At the last second, Danny swerved, and both Shadow and Johnny yelped as they realized they were about to crash into each other.

Danny laughed as Johnny and Shadow went tumbling across the sky in a tangle of limbs and shadowy bits, Johnny cursing up a storm. He saw Johnny’s grip on the stolen necklace loosen, and quickly swooped down to catch it before it could plummet to the earth below, sighing in satisfaction now that he’d secured the stolen goods.

But then his gaze trailed past the necklace in his hands to the digital clock display on the billboard down below, and Danny felt the ectoplasm in his veins turn to ice. 4:04?! How the heck was it 4:04 already?! He’d just seen a clock read 2:59! Had he read the clock face wrong?!

And then memories of his mom and Tucker mentioning it being daylight savings today surfaced in his mind, leaving him with a sinking feeling in his gut. Oh no. Oh no. He’d totally forgotten! He hadn’t even thought about how the time change was coming up! But did it matter? Would the clocks changing also change the time his transformation took effect?

His answer came just moments later.

It started as a familiar tingle in his fingers. He looked down at them in horror, spotting the beginning little sparks of electricity start to jump along the back of his left hand.

“No,” he whispered, frozen in fear, unable to do anything but watch with dread as the electricity began to build, climbing up his limb and spreading out over his body. “No, no, no!”

It was too late to do anything to stop it. The lightning struck. His body jolted as it was wracked with energy, his spine arching and his limbs splaying out as he was overcome. The world went white.

And then it faded. Danny had a single moment where he came out of his transformation, dazed from the shift, where gravity hadn’t yet grabbed ahold of him. He hung suspended in the sky, blinking groggily at the stars that seemed so much closer than they should be, wondering where he was and what had happened to him.

And then his stomach lurched, flying up into his throat, and he began to fall.

He let out a sharp scream. The wind whipped at his face and hair, sending him tumbling end over end as he fell helplessly through the air. His eyes were wide with terror, but he could barely make out what he was seeing, everything moving too quickly for him to register as he was tossed and rolled. He tried throwing out his arms and legs to increase wind resistance, but he just ended up flipped onto his back, the starry sky spread out before him rapidly shrinking away as he plummeted to his second death.

Through the haze of fear that had engulfed his brain, he faintly noted a bright light above him that didn’t quite look like a star, and a dull roaring sound he could just barely make out over the rush of the wind. His head spun. He couldn’t see past the light above him. What was it? What was that coming towards him, making that noise?

The light grew closer, still too far for Danny to reach, but close enough now that he could see past the glare of it to make out the serious expression on Johnny’s face, bent low over his motorcycle’s handlebars as he dove towards Danny. It sounded like he was pushing his bike’s engine to its limit, his face a mask of determination.

And yet, Danny could already tell he wouldn’t make it in time. The tops of the tallest surrounding buildings were just starting to appear in Danny’s peripheral vision, the ground rushing up to catch him before Johnny could. The last thing Danny’s wide, tearful eyes saw was Johnny’s mouth dropping open to shout something Danny couldn’t hear.

And then darkness surrounded him.

It was such a sharp contrast to the rush of his final moments, that it took Danny’s brain a moment to even catch up to what had happened. A part of him was relieved to discover that his second death hadn’t been even remotely as painful as his first - in fact he hadn’t felt anything at all, really. Maybe he’d died too quickly for the pain to register.

A larger part of him, though, immediately began to panic. He was dead! He was all the way dead! What was going to happen now? What would his family think? His friends? Would his parents even notice he was gone? Would Jazz, Sam, and Tucker be relieved to finally be rid of him? Tears ran down his cheeks as he became overwhelmed with a sense of loss. He didn’t want to die yet! He didn’t want to die again!

But then it hit him; he could feel the tears on his cheeks. He could still feel his face, feel his body. How was that possible if he was dead?

Just as the thought occurred to him, the darkness that had surrounded him suddenly peeled away, dumping Danny out on the cold hard concrete of the sidewalk. Danny just lay there for a moment, curled up on his side and shaking, as he struggled to understand what had happened. And then he heard footsteps walking towards him, and he lifted his head just enough to catch sight of Johnny’s boots coming to a stop next to him.

“Good catch, Shadow,” Johnny murmured to his companion, before crouching down next to Danny’s head. “Hey, kid. Can you hear me?”

“J-Johnny?” Danny asked, his voice small and lost.

“...Yeah, kid. It’s me.”

Danny slowly pushed himself up until he was resting on his elbows so he could look up at Johnny fully. The ghost was watching him with a blank expression while Shadow hovered over his shoulder, looking concerned. Johnny’s motorcycle had been parked next to the sidewalk, the lights and engine shut off. Danny had no idea what had happened to the necklace; he’d definitely dropped it when he’d transformed and it was probably long gone now.

“I…I…” Danny struggled to speak, but his throat felt clogged up, and he couldn’t seem to form actual words at the moment. He tried to sit up further, but his body was trembling too much, and he collapsed back against the sidewalk.

Or rather, he would have, had Johnny not caught him.

“Geez! Careful, kid, you’re gonna crack your head open,” Johnny chided him gently, even as he helped Danny sit up. “There you go. Easy does it.”

“W-what happened?” Danny asked. He mostly knew the answer - clearly Shadow had caught him before he hit the ground, thus saving his life - but his brain was struggling to process anything beyond a high pitched whining sound that rang in his ears like an overworked computer fan.

“With that big flash of lightning that zapped you? No idea,” Johnny told him frankly. He kept a hand on Danny’s shoulder to keep him steady as Danny swayed like he was on a boat rather than a sidewalk. “After you fell? Shadow managed to catch you before you went splat.”

“T-that’s…good,” Danny choked out, his fingernails digging into the concrete as he tried to ground himself. “I’m very happy about not going splat.”

“Yeah. Don’t think you could have gone intangible like this,” Johnny agreed absently. His brow furrowed as he studied Danny’s features. “You’re actually breathing, aren’t you?”

“Trying,” Danny agreed tightly, even as his breathing stuttered in his chest. He could feel the adrenaline rush from the near death experience start to hit him, and he struggled to keep himself from hyperventilating.

“What the actual heck, kid? You’re…you’re alive again? How is that possible?”

Danny grit his teeth. He didn’t want to talk about it, but Johnny and Shadow had just saved his life. He owed them an explanation at least. “I don’t really know why it happens,” Danny said slowly, focusing on keeping his breathing steady and his words clear. “Back in September I turned on my parent’s portal to the Ghost Zone…only I was inside it when it activated. It zapped me, and I thought it killed me, since I woke up as a ghost. But twelve hours after I died, I got zapped again and turned back into a human, alive and well. I thought maybe it was just a fluke or something, and tried to go about my day like nothing had happened…except that afternoon, at the same time I’d died the day before, I changed back again. And it’s been happening ever since. Twelve hours human, twelve hours a ghost, every day. Half my time alive, half my time dead. Couldn’t tell you why.”

“Wow. That’s…crazy.”

“Yeah,” Danny agreed, his breath wheezing out of him with a shudder. “I’d gotten used to it by now, but today is daylight savings, and that really messed it up because I guess the timing of my transformation changed too? I don’t get it. But…here we are.”

Johnny sat back, taking in Danny’s story with a low whistle. They lingered in silence for a moment while Johnny chewed his thoughts over and Danny worked to get his heart rate under control. The night slowly filled up with the sounds of chirping crickets and scurrying animals, the distant rumble of traffic on the highway to the north an ever present baseline.

“I gotta admit,” Johnny said after a bit. “I don't think any of us expected your story to be that you were half alive. My money was that your lair was on the other side of one of those cycling portals, or something. You know the ones that only show up at certain times? Rumor in the Zone was that you only showed up at night, so Kitty thought it was related to the moon cycle or something. I heard Poindexter go on about time wells or whatever, but I stopped listening. Gotta say, though, the truth seems…rough.”

“...yeah,” Danny agreed quietly, tucking up his knees so he could rest his folded arms on top of them, dropping his chin down to curl up into a tight little ball. “Yeah, it kinda sucks.”

“I can imagine.”

Danny could have left it at that. He probably should have. But Johnny was being unusually kind, and Danny had never had a chance to actually open up about any of this before. So before he could stop himself, the rest of it just started spilling out.

“You know, the switching back and forth isn't even the worst of it,” he admitted, his voice strained. “Like, yeah, it sucks. And yeah, the transformation hurts like hell. But you know what sucks even more? The fact that it's basically ruined my life. My parents are ghost hunters! They literally chase me down and try to catch me so they can experiment on me every day! When they're not hunting me for the sake of their so-called science, they're inventing new, horrible ways to cut me open or blast me apart or trap me or obliterate me! They're obsessed with capturing me and dissecting me like I'm a frog in bio lab! And so I can't tell anyone the truth, because what if they tell my parents? Even if it's not on purpose, someone could let something slip! I can’t say a word to my friends or my sister or my teachers, even though it's destroying my friendships and my grades and my sanity!”

He found he had apparently jumped to his feet at some point, and had started to pace. Even as his voice grew louder and more hysterical, Johnny and Shadow just let him rant, neither making any move to interrupt him.

“I can't be there for my friends because I have to make sure I'm home before I transform so no one sees it happen, so now they want nothing to do with me. And I can't catch up on my homework because I can’t be in my house when I'm a ghost or I might get blasted by some anti-ghost defense system, so my teachers all think I'm a slacker who doesn't care, even when I'm trying my best. And I had to chase my sister off so she wouldn’t figure out my secret, so now Jazz hates my guts - “

Johnny jolted a little at the mention of Danny's sister, clearly remembering his attempts to woo her so that Kitty could possess her, and finally making the connection between Danny as his human self and the annoying little brother who had kept interrupting him and Jazz, but thankfully he didn’t make any comments.

“ - and won’t even talk to me anymore! The only people who will even give me the time of day now are my parents, and as I said, half the time they're trying to re-kill me! But hey, at least when I’m a ghost they actually spend time with me! When I’m human, I barely see them! I don’t even remember the last time my mom even looked me in the eyes! And I get it, I really do! They’re busy! Ever since I screwed up and activated the portal, all these ghosts keep coming through and terrorizing the town, and my parents have their hands full during the day when I’m stuck as a normal human, taking care of everything! But even when I try to help them with that, they still call me a monster and a spook and shoot at me! I’ve got them coming after me, and you guys coming after me when I’m a ghost, and then when I’m human I’m all alone! I mean, I just almost died all the way, and you know what the only thing I could think about was? About how much no one would miss me. I could have died, and I don’t think anyone would have even cared.”

Danny’s shoulders slumped as he finally lost steam. At some point, he had apparently started crying with his anger and frustration. Tears were running freely down his face, but he angrily scrubbed them away.

“I’m just so tired,” he confessed brokenly, his eyes squeezed shut. “I’m just so tired of…all of it.”

There was a long pause before Johnny spoke, the other ghost clearly taking his time to process everything Danny had just dumped on him.

“Wow, kid,” he said slowly, sharing a glance with Shadow and rubbing at the back of his neck. “That’s…that’s a lot. That’s…really, really rough. And, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for making things harder on you. I swear, I didn’t know. None of us knew.”

“It’s…it’s okay,” Danny replied quietly, shaking his head. “That was kind of the point. I didn’t want anyone to know.”

“Still. You seem like a pretty chill kid, and you’ve got enough on your plate. I don’t want to be adding to it. I can’t make any promises, but I can talk to a few folk in the Ghost Zone. See if I can at least get a few of the others off your back. Pretty sure Ember’s going to flip her lid when she finds out about this, at the very least, and don’t be surprised if that old lunch lady comes after you with food.”

“You don’t have to do that, Johnny.”

“Nah, but I want to,” Johnny told him. “At the very least, maybe we can keep your folks busy, keep ‘em off your back for a bit.”

“...thank you,” Danny mumbled. He wanted to argue more, but the idea of not having to watch his back, even for one night, was too tempting to pass up. His parents’ inventions had only been growing more powerful and precise lately, and he dreaded the day they perfected their technology.

“In the meantime…listen, kid. You gotta talk to someone about this. It’s clearly eating you up. And hey, I’m happy to be a pair of ears, but I'm just passing through. You’re gonna have to open up to someone on this side of the portal or you’re probably going to explode.”

Danny flushed. “Who, though?” he argued defensively. “Who could I possibly trust with this? Didn’t I just explain why I can’t tell anyone? Who would be safe to talk to, given my situation?”

Johnny scratched the back of his head and shrugged. “I mean, that’s kind of your choice, kid. But if you’re looking for suggestions? I’d say talk to your sister.”

“Jazz?” Danny blurted, blinking in confusion. “Why her? She hates me now!”

“You’d be surprised,” Johnny responded with uncharacteristic seriousness. “I mean, I don’t know the whole story, so maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree, but all I know is when she and I were…hanging out, she talked about you a lot. She sounded like she really loved you, man.”

“That…that can’t be right,” Danny tried to deny, but Johnny’s face was open and honest, not a hint of deceit to be seen. Danny could tell he wasn’t lying. “...are you sure?”

“Positive,” Johnny confirmed. Shadow nodded as well for good measure. “She always said she was worried about you. She really cares, man.”

“...I’ll think about it.”

“Sure,” Johnny said carelessly. And then he started to walk over to his motorcycle. “Here, you need a ride home?”

Danny looked around and realized how far from home he’d gotten. He flushed with embarrassment, but meekly nodded his head. He was well over an hour’s walk from home, and there weren’t exactly any buses running this late at night. Even if there were, he didn’t have any money on him.

“Hop on,” Johnny gestured him over. “I’ll give you a lift.”

Johnny pulled his bike up to the curb just outside Fenton Works and cut the engine, holding it steady so that Danny could hop off.

“Thanks for the ride,” Danny mumbled. Now that the rush of finally getting to be honest with someone about his situation was over, Danny was left feeling embarrassed and ashamed by his outburst. What the heck was he thinking, complaining to Johnny 13 of all people?! At least Johnny seemed to be pretty calm and understanding about the whole thing.

“No worries, kid. And hey, remember what I said. You need to talk to someone.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Danny grumbled.

“And hey,” Johnny added, his eyes flicking up towards the living room windows. “Looks like here's your chance.”

Danny turned to look as well, just in time to catch a flash of long, red hair moving away from the glass before the curtain fell closed, hiding the observer from view.

“See ya, kid!” Johnny shouted as he restarted his engine, giving it a rev. “And think about it!”

Then he was shooting off down the street, probably on his way to go find the necklace they’d lost, Shadow soaring after him with a parting wave. Danny watched them go until they were out of sight, and then with a sigh he trudged towards the front door. Time to face the music.

When he slumped into the living room, the lamp was on, casting the space in strange shadows. Jazz was standing in the middle of the floor, arms folded over her chest, a thunderous expression on her face. Danny winced, shrinking back at the sight of his older sister clearly about to rip him a new one. He didn’t know what Johnny was thinking; Jazz? Still care about him? Maybe in his dreams!

“Danny,” she greeted him, and if her expression hadn’t already told him how angry she was, her voice would have given it away. It was as cold as ice, with a hint of strain as she forced herself to keep calm. “Where have you been?”

“...out for a walk?” Danny lied weakly, more out of habit than anything.

“Don’t lie to me!” Jazz snapped, making Danny flinch. “I know you haven’t been home all night! I know you haven’t been home any night recently! I don’t actually know the last time you slept in your bed for more than a few hours! You’ve been out every night for months now, doing who knows what with who knows who!”

“I’ve…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Danny tried to defend himself, not able to meet her gaze.

The glare she gave him could have peeled paint. “Do you think I’m an idiot, Danny?” she growled. “Do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I can’t tell the difference between a hunk of plastic with a cheap wig on it and my own little brother?”

Ah. So she’d noticed the mannequin. Crud.

Recognizing that Danny didn’t have any way to respond to that accusation, she barreled on. “But hey! At least you were always home by 4 AM! At least I could trust that when I checked in with you by then, you’d be back! It wasn’t much, but it was a small sliver of peace of mind for me as I watched my little brother self-destruct! Do you know how many times Sam and Tucker have approached me and asked if you’ve joined a cult or something? Or a gang? It's been twice this week already! And I can’t answer them because I have no idea what you’re up to! I don’t, Danny! All I know is that you’re sneaking out, you’re never around, and you barely even talk to anyone anymore! I don’t know if it would be better if you had joined a gang, because then at least someone knows where you are and can watch out for you!”

The more she yelled, the guiltier Danny felt. But rather than confess, as he probably should have, he found himself going on the defensive. “Well, what does it matter to you what I get up to? Why do you even care? It’s not like it affects you at all!”

She stared at him, looking so stunned that he might as well have hit her. “What does it matter?” she repeated incredulously, her voice growing shrill. “What does it matter?! It matters because you’re my little brother, Danny! It matters because I love you and I’m worried about you! Do you know how scared I was when I went to check on you this morning at my usual time, and you weren’t there?! I thought, this was finally it, you’d finally gotten yourself too deep into whatever the heck you’re mixed up in, and my little brother has gotten himself killed and I couldn’t do anything to stop it!”

Danny wanted to argue back, but he couldn’t help but get caught on one of the minor details from her shouting. “You - you check on me?”

“Yes! Of course I check up on you, Danny!” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “I’m worried sick about you all the time, but you won’t talk to me or your friends, so I don’t know what else to do but try to keep an eye on you when I can!”

He remembered hearing Jazz moving around in the hall outside his bedroom sometimes in the middle of the night, shortly after he’d gotten home and transformed, but he’d always assumed she was just going to the bathroom or grabbing a drink of water. He’d had no idea she was checking in on him. He was both slightly touched, and also terrified - what if she’d come in when he was transforming? He would have had no idea she was there.

“S-so you’ve been spying on me?!” he croaked out, feeling panicked at the idea that she might have already figured out his secret and spilled it to their parents. Were they here? Were they just waiting for the right moment to strike, when his guard was down and he was at his weakest?

But - no. No, there was no way they were lying in wait for him. He could hear his dad’s snores from the living room, even though his parents’ bedroom was a full floor and several rooms away. His parents were asleep, not lurking in the shadows to attack him.

“Well maybe if you actually talked to me,” Jazz replied fiercely, drawing Danny’s focus back to her, “I wouldn’t have to spy on you to make sure you’re still okay!”

The room fell silent as Jazz paused to catch her breath. This was it. This was the perfect moment. All Danny had to do was open his mouth, and let it all spill out, just like he’d done with Johnny. He just had to tell Jazz the truth.

But the longer they stood there, the longer the lull in their conversation stretched, the more Jazz’s expression darkened as she waited for the words that just refused to come. Danny wanted to tell her! He really did! He tried to force the words out, to tell her the truth, to say something, anything! But after keeping it a secret for so long on pain of death, the words were stuck in Danny’s throat, trapped behind his teeth. He couldn’t get himself to speak.

Finally, Jazz huffed in frustration and disappointment, and started to stomp away.

“Fine,” she snarled as she stalked off. “I’ve wasted enough of my time waiting up for you. I’m going back to bed.”

“W-wait! Jazz, please wait!” Danny called after her. To his surprise, she actually did pause and turn back to face him, even if her expression was still furious. He knew that he had to do something, had to say something, or he really was going to lose his relationship with his sister forever. This was his last chance.

Wringing his fingers together, he nervously blurted out, “I…I can’t tell you. But…but I might be able to show you?”

“Show me what?” she asked, still angry, but slowly calming.

“...I don’t know how to explain. You’ll just have to see it for yourself.”

“Alright, then,” she agreed coolly, crossing her arms over her chest again. “Show me.”

He winced. “I…can’t. Not right now.”

“Of course you can’t,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“But!” Danny quickly added before she could get mad again. “I can show you later. Today. After school. I…I promise.”

She studied him with narrowed eyes. Danny tried not to squirm under her scrutiny, but he couldn’t help it. He’d seen Jazz upset before, of course, but this was the angriest he’d ever seen her. It just drove home how important it was for him to finally be honest with her.

“Alright,” she eventually allowed. “Fine. Today, after school. But I’m driving you home, Danny. Don’t you dare try to wiggle out of this. Or…I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“That’s fair,” Danny agreed with a huge sigh of relief. “I can live with that.”

“Good. Now, I’m going back to bed. You should try to get some sleep too, Danny.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re right. I’ll be up in a sec, I just want to grab a snack.”

“Don’t eat sweets,” she lectured out of habit.

“I won’t. Night, Jazz.”

“Good night, Danny.”

She vanished up the stairs. Danny lingered in the living room for a few more minutes, just until he heard the door to her room click shut, and then he let out a tired sigh, his hands coming up to rub at his temples.

“What a mess,” he muttered to himself.

He shook his head, and then headed towards the kitchen to grab his snack to stop his stomach from cramping. And hey, if his snack was cookies, Jazz was already pretty ticked at him, not like he could make it worse.

“Alright, Danny, we’re here. Now, what do you need to show me?”

Danny breathed out heavily as he nervously paced his bedroom floor, shaking his arms out in an attempt to clear some of his jitters. He and Jazz had come home right after school and made a beeline for his room as soon as they’d arrived, not even bothering to read the sticky note their parents had left on the fridge this time. Danny was used to the routine of rushing up to his room once he got home, but this was the first time he’d done it with someone else beside him. As soon as they’d entered his bedroom, Jazz had shut the door behind them and dropped down to sit on his bed, looking up at him expectantly.

“Okay. Okay. Okay,” Danny chanted anxiously. “Okay. So. I just want to say, please don’t freak out? Or, I mean, you probably will and I can’t stop you, but please at least hear me out afterwards? Once the freaking out part is over?”

“I’m willing to hear you out, Danny, of course,” she said reassuringly. “But why am I going to freak out?”

“It’s…a lot. I mean, I don’t actually know what the whole thing looks like, I usually kind of zone out at the peak of it, but I can imagine it’s not pretty. Oh, and it might be really bright. Actually, it’s probably really bright. You might want to close your eyes.”

“Danny, what are you talking about? What's going on, what are you trying to show me?” Jazz asked, looking completely baffled. “You’re starting to make me nervous.”

But Danny didn’t have time to answer her, because his alarm clock had just changed to display 4:07 PM, and the first transformation sparks were starting to appear along his fingertips.

“Here we go,” he announced shakily, holding up his arm that was arcing with electricity to show her.

Her eyes went as wide as saucers. “Danny?! Wh-what’s happening?”

“Sorry about this Jazz.”

That was all he had time to say before his transformation swept over him, the familiar feeling of being electrocuted flooding his nerves and senses and leaving him blind, deaf, and mute. He didn’t know if it was actually different this time, or if it just felt different because this time he had a witness, but the pain seemed to last longer, burn hotter, than ever before.

He slowly swam back to consciousness as the lightning faded, the familiar post-transformation dizziness leaving his head feeling like it was full of cotton. One by one, his senses returned, the world filling in around him. He became aware of the sound of someone crying, and it took him a second to remember who was there in the room with him.

“Jazz,” he breathed, his eyes sliding open.

“D-Danny!” she sobbed, staring up at him with tears running down her cheeks. “Oh my god, Danny! What…what was that?!”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized weakly, letting himself float down until his feet were touching the floor. “I told you that it might be a bit much. Do you at least get it now, why I told you I’d have to show you?”

“I…No! I don’t understand!” she cried out. “I don't understand anything! What just happened?!”

It was somehow easier this time to explain, perhaps because he’d had a chance to tell his story to Johnny first. “Do you remember last September, when mom and dad’s ghost portal turned on by itself?”

“Y-yes?” she sniffed.

“Well, it didn’t turn on by itself,” he admitted. “I turned it on. While I was still inside it.”

Her hands flew up to cover her mouth, her eyes wide. “No. Oh no.”

“Yeah. Heh. It, uh. Really sucked.” He scuffed the toe of his white boot into the carpet.

“Danny. Danny, that should have killed you.”

“I mean…” He gestured to himself. “I kinda did? Half kill me, that is.”

When she only stared at him in disbelief and horror, Danny sighed, and the whole story came spilling out. It took him a bit to tell her everything, longer than it took to explain to Johnny, but he wanted to make sure he did this right. He wanted to finally be completely honest with his sister.

“So now, here I am. Human by day, ghost by night. Except not really since the switch happens in like the middle of the afternoon. It’s been like this ever since,” he finished, throwing his arms wide like a magician presenting a trick.

He’d been talking long enough that Jazz had started to calm down. Her cheeks were still shiny and wet from her tears, but she’d stopped crying. Now she stared down at her hands folded in her lap, looking more than a little shell shocked.

“...I…I’ll admit, I knew there was something going on with you and Phantom,” she confessed slowly, sounding deep in thought. “I’d seen him fly out of your room a couple of times before.”

She had? Crud. He'd tried to be careful, but apparently he hadn't been as sneaky as he'd thought whenever he'd flown off as Phantom.

She let out a wet chuckle, and said, “Honestly I thought maybe you were his weapons dealer or something. He had to have gotten mom and dad’s thermos somehow, right? I just…I never even imagined that you were one and the same.”

“I'm sorry I never told you the truth,” Danny apologized softly, hanging his head in shame.

“Don't be,” she immediately replied. Her face was pinched with sadness, but she still gave him a small, pained smile. “I mean, I can't say I'm not sad that you didn't feel like you could trust me, but I understand why you didn't. You've been carrying this impossibly heavy burden, Danny. I'm just sorry you've been carrying it alone.”

He shrugged. “I've been able to handle it.”

“You think that, but I could see how much strain it was putting on you, even if I didn't know the cause,” she told him. “Everyone could see it. Why do you think Sam and Tucker kept coming to me, hoping I knew more than they did? We were all worried about you, Danny.”

He winced. “I'm sorry I worried you. And that I pushed you away. And called you a nosy busybody know-it-all who doesn’t know how to mind her own business. I didn’t mean it, I just didn’t want you noticing what had happened to me.”

Jazz’s eye twitched. “Just…as long as you stop pushing me away,” she sighed.

“I won’t,” he promised. “Not anymore.”

“Good. And…I mean, I’m not sure exactly what’s going to happen next,” she admitted. “I kind of have to think about all this.”

“I get it. It’s a lot to process.”

“It is. But no matter what, you won’t be dealing with this alone anymore,” she told him, making her own promise. “I’ll help you out in any way I can. Right now, it might just be keeping mom and dad off of your back. I might be able to sabotage a few of their weapons so they can’t give you as much trouble, stuff like that.”

Danny felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. He hadn’t realized how heavy it had been, carrying his secret alone. But now that Jazz knew, maybe, just possibly, things might be a little bit easier on him going forward.

“Thanks Jazz,” he told her sincerely, feeling a little choked up. “I…I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

She gave him a small smile. “What are big sisters for?”

The tears that had been pricking at the corners of his eyes beaded up. His chin started to wobble. And before he knew what he was doing, he was throwing himself into her chest.

“Oof!” she grunted as he collided with her, but her arms automatically came up to cradle him. “Oh, geez, you’re cold!”

“Sorry,” he sniffled, guiltily trying to pull away, but Jazz just tightened her hold.

“Don’t you try wriggling away from me,” she scolded with a laugh. “I haven’t had a hug from you in months! I missed you!”

“I missed you too, Jazz.”

She paused, and then asked, “Have you thought about telling Sam and Tucker?”

“Thought about it? Yeah, a hundred times. I don’t think I could actually do it, though.”

“You might want to give it a shot,” she suggested gently. “I know your friends. I know they care about you just as much as I do. They wouldn’t tell anyone. And then you’d have a few more people to support you.”

“I don’t know…”

“Well, just think about it,” she said. “You don’t need to rush off and tell them everything now. In the meantime, I’m here for you, for whatever you need.”

“Thank you, Jazz. I’m…I’m really glad.”

“Me too,” she agreed with a grin.

They smiled at each other for a moment, both so happy that they were finally on the same page and talking to each other again.

And then the moment was broken when a rock smacked against Danny’s bedroom window.

“What was that?” Danny asked, his head whipping towards it. At the same time, a wisp of blue mist escaped his mouth.

Jazz frowned. “Stay back. We don’t want anyone to see you from the street.”

He fell back into the shadows of his room as she stalked towards his window, her brow furrowed. She threw open the curtains, peering down at the street below.

“What the - ?” she blurted out, and then in one swift motion she pushed Danny’s window open. “Johnny? What are you doing here?!”

“Hey Jazz! Is the kid still around?”

Danny flew over to the window to look out, hovering over Jazz’s head, her warning forgotten. “Johnny? Kitty?”

“Oh hey ghost kid!” Kitty greeted him with a wave and a smile. “We’re here to pick you up!”

“Pick me up?” he repeated in confusion.

“Yeah,” Johnny said. “Kitty missed out on seeing you last time, so I told her we'd come back and hang out. We even made sure that no one else was planning to visit from the Ghost Zone today, so the night should be quiet for you. What do you say? You wanna go check out the drive in theater? We were thinking of catching that new Kung Fu Croc movie, word in the Zone is that it’s pretty good.”

Despite himself, Danny brightened. “Yeah, it was awesome, I saw it yesterday! I wouldn't mind seeing it again, though, some of the plot twists really surprised me and I'd like to see if I can spot them coming this time.”

“Well come on, then,” Johnny told him, gesturing for Danny to join them. “We should pick out a spot before the crowds get bad.”

“And if your folks show up,” Kitty added, “Johnny and I can get you outta there real quick.”

“You'd better,” Jazz threatened, jumping back into the conversation. She gave Kitty and Johnny a dark look. “You guys had better take good care of my brother, or I'll steal my parent's gear and kick your butts myself.”

“Ah Jazz, don't be like that,” Johnny whined.

“Don't worry, girl,” Kitty said with a smirk. “I know how to keep these boys in line. Squirt is safe with me.”

Jazz stared them down for one more moment, and then her serious expression cracked, revealing the concern underneath. “Alright. Danny? You want to go?”

“Y-yeah. Actually, I do,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. A night of hanging out with friends, watching a movie? Sure, he'd kind of done the exact same thing yesterday, but it beat flying around, chasing down ghost wolves and blob ghosts, trying to avoid a run-in with his parents. A night out, getting to act like the kid he was for once? It was like a dream come true.

“Well, then. Off you go,” Jazz said, giving him a little shove towards the window. “Just try to be home a bit earlier tonight, okay? Maybe, if you’re back before ten, I can help you with your homework? I know you have some you've been ignoring.”

Caught, Danny could only chuckle nervously. “Maaaaybe?”

“It's waited this long,” Jazz said with a gentle laugh. “And you look like you could use a break. Go have fun, Danny.”

“Thanks Jazz.” Danny swooped down and gave her another big hug, squeezing her tightly. “You're the best.”

“I know,” she laughed. And then she gently pushed him towards the window again. Needing no further prompting, Danny flew out and down to the street with a whoop, giving Shadow a high five as he landed on the motorcycle seat right behind Kitty.

“Have fun, guys!” Jazz called out from the window above. “But not too much fun!”

“No promises!” Johnny shouted. And then with a laugh, he revved his bike's engine, and shot off down the street, Kitty and Danny clinging onto his back and cheering, Shadow giving chase.

They raced off into the city. Just before they turned the corner, though, Danny looked back towards home, catching sight of Jazz leaning out the window and waving. He waved back, the grin on his face hurting his cheeks with how wide it had grown. He couldn't remember the last time he had smiled like this. It felt good, to finally feel happy again, like he had hopes and a future again.

“Bye, Jazz!” He shouted, laughing like for once he didn't have a care in the world.

Then he turned and faced forward again, eager to see what adventures awaited him next.